This is a question I am regularly asked, and like many things to do with health and fitness there is no definitive answer that works for everyone. Some people will do better changing workouts regularly, whereas others will see poor results from continual change and need to stick to the same program for a longer period of time. It all depends on the person’s goals, the objective of the workout, and the ability and skill of the person working out. Beginners will often benefit from sticking to the same program for a while and remaining consistent with the same exercises so they can learn from their mistakes. Whereas, more advanced trainers will see better results with more constant change to avoid falling into a plateau. Too much, or too little change can have a negative effect on the training results, so trying to find the perfect balance is important. In this article, I will try to explain how I know when to change the workout and some little tricks to add subtle changes to your workout without changing the whole program.

Variety with exercise is great and can be the main thing that drives results whether that is with strength training to build muscle and strength or cardio for fitness! However, there's a fine line when it comes to variety and changing it too often that can actually drive poorer results. Change for the sake of change is not a good enough reason to use for continually modifying the program. You must have a specific reason for changing.

Let’s take a look at a few examples beginning with the objective of improving strength and muscle mass.

Many people believe they need to change their workout routine all the time to keep the muscles guessing and prevent the body from getting too used to what you’re doing. While there is some truth to this, sometimes too much change does not allow the body time to adapt and improve and encourage what is known as progressive overload.

In order to build muscle and improve strength you need to gradually increase the demands being placed on your body by gradually getting stronger (e.g. lifting more weight, lifting the same weight for more reps, etc.). For this type of progression to occur to its full potential, you need consistency, and you need to do this over a sufficient duration of time. This means you need to complete the same exercises for a while in order to improve.

How can you improver or progress to greater intensity or loads when you’re constantly changing what it is you’re trying to progress at? Changing exercises too often is only going to be counterproductive to your goals. Your body needs time to learn the exercise, master it, and take it to its full potential. This will not happen if you keep changing things all the time.

One of the main reasons you need so much time is that the body requires long periods of rest to heal itself from the damage created from the training. You cannot shortcut this process, for if you do you risk injury or illness. The harder you train, the more damage you create, and the longer you need to rest between workouts to maximise your efforts. This all takes considerable time and you cannot break the rules of recover or you will pay a price as you can see clearly in the picture below.

• Example A shows the perfect balance between training and rest where constant improvement is achieved.
• Example B shows the damage of over-training where the rest is compromised and the quality of the training is as a result very poor.
• Example C shows the result of not enough training where too long between workouts does not allow the body to constantly grow and adapts.

You can read more about how to find the perfect balance in the article about over-training.

The two times that I am looking to change the workouts quickly are with beginners learning new movements and also with injury and rehabilitation where I am moving from simple isolated exercises to more integrated movement.

Firstly, with beginners I may only be able to show them only a handful of exercises at one time for their brain can only process so much information. This means I may not be able to give them the full program straight away, and will need to break it up into smaller pieces so it is easier for them to understand and execute effectively. Depending on how fast they learn it could take a few weeks before I am able to give them a full workout where the program remains the same. This means the program may be changing almost weekly at first until we reach the point where they have a full program for them to stick to for a while.

A full program will consist of exercises that attempt to improve all of the fundamental movement patterns listed below.

1. Squat
2. Lunge
3. Bend
4. Push
5. Pull
6. Gait
7. Twist

Watch the video below to see these movements in action.

By improving movement quality and strength across these patterns you improve the strength of every muscle in the body. The variation of difficulty the exercises you will need to use for each pattern will be quite different as some movements you will find easy, and others very challenging. This is where you could be using advanced progressions with the squat and lunge pattern, but a simplified regression for the bending and twisting pattern.

Always remember that your body is only as strong as your weakest link, so most of your programming should be focused on improving the areas you are weakest in.

Some of these movement patterns people will find easier than others, so I need to use an assessment to determine what their current ability is. Once I know what they can do I can assign the version that challenges them accordingly but this does take some trial and error to get this right.

Grab a copy of our FREE REPORT below that gives you all the details about these movements and many of the variations you could use. Click here to get your free copy.

With regards to injury and rehabilitation it is very important I find ways to progress from basic exercises like stretching or isolated strengthening as fast as possible for the person to fully restore the strength and function back to the injured joint or muscle. Isolation exercises are very important in the beginning and sometimes the only option due to amount of pain present, but these exercises are very ineffective over the long term for fully rehabilitating an injury. Using gradual progression and testing is important to determine when it is the right time to progress. It is not unusual to see a change with almost every program.

Eventually the person gets to that point in the rehabilitation program where change and progression of exercises is no longer needed and a period of time working on the same thing is required.

You can see more about this in the video below.

While both beginners and rehab will see constant change in the beginning, they will eventually need to stick with the same program and spend considerable time working on the “big” exercises or movements to make any serious changes to their health and fitness. This is where the program may change very little for 10-12 weeks while you work through the “sticking” phase. This is usually a very frustrating phase as mistakes are a common part that prevent the person from progressing to the next phase in their training.

In the end, progression is the only “change” your body truly requires. And that’s going to entail sticking with the same program for a lot longer than many people seem to realize.

What Other Progressions Can You Use

Instead of changing your exercises, you can manipulate other variables in the program such as sets, reps, rest, and even tempo. Any change to these variables makes the workout completely different but the exercise you are using remains the same. This is how I can achieve both goals of maintaining steady progress but keeping the workout fresh and new so the person does not get bored.

Here is three simple ways to progress the squat movement using these variables.

1. 3 sets of 8-12 reps with 1 minute rest (standard hypertrophy strengthening)
2. 4 sets of 4-6 reps with 2 minute rest (maximal strengthening)
3. 3 sets of 8-12 reps with a tempo change of 3-5-1 (holding 5 seconds)

Each one of these workouts will feel much different to the next even though the squat is exactly the same in terms of technique execution. You do not need to learn a new movement, but you do need to learn how to master the different intensity and demand of each program. This is a simple way you can manipulate your program without changing the exercise too often.

Other great progressions are using advanced methods like supersets, drop sets and even circuit workouts to really change things up. Supersets contain pairings of exercises that can target the same muscle/muscle group, One set is performed of one of the exercises in the pair, then the other immediately afterwards. A short recovery can be taken between each pair before the next set is performed.

Watch the videos below to see examples of tempo change and how to use drop sets or supersets to mix your program up.

Circuit training involves using a series of exercises performed in rotation usually with minimal to no resting time producing huge levels of fatigue in a very short time. This is a great way to combine strength and fitness methods within the same workout.

You can read more about those methods and see several great examples of these in the two articles shown below.

• 4 reasons to use supersets in your workout
• 4 unique ways to use circuit workouts

Don’t Stick with The Same Program Too Long Either

Now, while you do need to avoid changing your workout too often, it’s also unrealistic (and incorrect) to think that you’re going to do the same workout the same way forever. I have met many young guys who have been doing 5 sets of 5 reps for two years! Not only is this extremely boring it also poses the risk of pattern overload.

Pattern overload is a term I first heard from Paul Chek. 

Basically this describes an injury to soft tissues resulting from repetitive movements used too often or from restricted freedom of movement when using certain machine based training. This is classic concern with sports like running and cycling that are extremely repetitive, people who do too much gym work and never change their program and occupations that are very repetitive with certain movements.

Pattern overload is caused mainly when there is these three things present.

1. An inability to correctly sequence a movement
2. Being isolated or restricted to a specific movement without freedom to use more planes of motion
3. Overuse of any particular pattern of movement

Many people have a particular exercise or two that is their favourite and they tend to do this almost every session. Constantly stressing the joints, connective tissues and muscles with the exact same exercise, loads & tempos will eventually create a pattern overload. You rarely see this in sports like tennis, basketball, football because it is near impossible to replicate the exact same angle, speed, force of movement over and over. But in sports like running, cycling, swimming and even gym work you can replicate an exact movement.

It is important to always constantly change equipment, angles, sets, reps, tempo to allow different muscles and tissues to adapt to new stimulus.

Apart from avoiding pattern overload the other reasons to change your program include:

• Allows for changes in your life
• Allows you to learning new skills and abilities
• Trains body parts in other beneficial ways.
• Maximize the benefits of other exercises and variations along with other types of equipment.
• Freshens you up mentally to keep you highly motivated, preventing boredom, and keeping things fun.

Change is a big part of the progressive overload process is something you must do at some point. It’s a necessary part of the process, and a necessary part of long-term progress. You just want to avoid doing it so often that it hinders progress, instead of helping it.

How I Like To Structure My Program Changes Using the Volume vs Intensity Rule

If you are not a beginner or someone dealing with an injury, and you are looking for fast gradual progression without your workouts becoming boring, you will find this idea I am about to discuss a game-changer for you.

This is where I like to change my workouts every 4-6 weeks by switching from high volume training that is often low in intensity, to low volume training that is high in intensity. Sounds confusing I know, so let me explain how it works.

The reps used in a workout really determine the level of intensity. The lower the reps used in a set the higher the intensity of the exercise. For example, 3 sets of squats of 10-15 reps will require an effort of 70-80% of your max. Whereas, doing 4-5 set of squats using 1-3 reps will require an effort of 95% of your max. Reps and sets have an inverse relationship with each other. If one goes down the other goes up. 

Maximal strength training and advanced methods like wave loading will require low reps and high amount of sets whereas heavy volume training methods like supersets, drop sets and circuit training will use high reps and a low number of sets.

Here is a graph to show you how it looks when a series of four programs are planned in advance.

The breakdown of the four workouts are as follows.

• Simple sets = 4 sets of 4-6 reps with 2 minutes rest (high intensity)
• Drop sets = 3 sets of 10+10+10 reps with 90 seconds rest (high volume)
• Wave loading = 6 sets of 2-5 reps with 3 minutes rest (high intensity)
• Circuit = 10 sets of 10-15 reps with no rest between exercises (high volume)

The intensity on every rep within the simple sets and Wave loading is extremely high and you feel you are under attack from the first rep. The drop sets and circuit are much lighter but they require a bigger focus on endurance and fitness for the workout never seems to end. The intensity is much lower which is why you can last so long but the demands on other skillsets is increased.

By constantly switching between high intensity/low volume workouts with low intensity/high volume you force your body into adapting to both strength and fitness simultaneously. Just as you seem to get used to the high intensity training and you switch to high volume it is a complete shock to the system and your body takes a while to adapt. Then just as you get used to it again you change back, and on and on it goes.

I suggest to change between 4-6 weeks so you have enough time to master your program without it also getting to monotonous at the same time. This is a clever way to keep constant gradual progression both physically and mentally that can take your training ability to a whole new level.

Watch the video below to learn more.

Do You Want More Workout Ideas?

And if you want even more circuit workouts, strength programs and even cardio and sporting workouts, make sure you get a copy of the Little Black Book of Training Secrets where I share 101 amazing programs just like the ones shown in this article. Click here to see more about what is inside this special report and download your digital copy instantly.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has provided you with a better understanding of how often you should be changing your workouts. While change is important and can provide great variety, changing your workout too often can prevent you from reaching your full potential. Finding the perfect balance between the two is the key and there is no magic “one size fits all” rule I can give to you for doing this. If you are learning something new or you have a problem with a particular movement you may need to stick to the same program for some time. However, if you are not dealing with these issues then applying the volume versus intensity rule will work wonders for you.

For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 300 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily. You can also subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter by clicking here.

If you do need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualised program.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 16 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Core Stability - by Peak Performance
• Athletic Body in Balance - by Gray Cook
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
• Functional Training For Sports - By Mike Boyle